Wheeled vehicle suppliers ARTEC, the Mowag arm of GDELS, Nexter and Patria have also been asked to submit bids.

The companies emerged from a pre-qualification effort mounted by the Danes earlier this year.

Denmark has a requirement for between 206 and 450 vehicles, although around 360 machines is expected to be the most likely procurement number, depending on how many of the M113s the military opts to replace.

The winning vehicle could be under contract before the end of 2014, industry executives said.

The Danish military is looking for six different configurations of the winning design: infantry, command and control, ambulance, mortar, engineering, and mechanical.

The Danes are already operators of BAE’s CV-90, and the Swedish arm of the company is likely to focus on its new Armadillo version of the tracked machine in its upcoming bid.